


Love Confessions

by Sporadic_fics



Series: Happy Steve bingo 2019 [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Happy Steve Bingo, Happy Steve Bingo 2019, M/M, Platonic Love, Post-Serum, Shrunkyclunks, Steve has so much love to give, Stony (possibly), Stucky - Freeform, as well as actual romantic love, it isn't in your face but if you ship it then I think you could get the ship in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-11-02 01:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20571575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sporadic_fics/pseuds/Sporadic_fics
Summary: Steve has a whole lot of love to give. For friends and lovers alike.Happy Steve Bingo- Love Confessions (slot 1)





	Love Confessions

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Steve Bingo 2019  
Slot 1- Love Confessions

Steve doesn’t remember the first time he confessed his love to someone, he knew it must have been to his mother when he was small, so small he couldn’t remember anything other than even in the coldest of nights, being with his mother he felt safe and warm. However, he did remember the last time he told her that he loved her and that was when she was ill with tuberculosis, he would tell her he loved her every day, sometimes multiple times a day, especially when the condition worsened. After her funeral, when he was curled up in bed under a bundle of blankets, he whispered his love under his breath over and over again until Bucky held him close, rocking him back and forth and whispering words that Steve just couldn’t process at the time.

After the battle of New York, Steve and Tony had a turbulent relationship, to say the least, with their ideals being different and the way they went about things being the polar opposite, they had gotten into many arguments. They did have two things in common; the first being that their main goal in life was to protect as many people as possible and the second being that they did, in fact, love each other. 

Steve had stormed into Tony’s workshop and he was livid, his chest was heaving, his fists were clenched and his jaw was pulled tight. Tony looked up from his bench, blood on his cheek, and grinned. His heart was racing, after all, he had flown into the heart of the battle, all by himself, and shot every powerful blast he could at the beasts that were trying to maul Steve. Steve had screamed at Tony to go, scared that Tony would get hurt. He did get hurt and Steve ended up sitting next to him the entire plane ride back to the tower, whenever Tony stood Steve was ready to jump up and catch him if he fell (he didn’t).

“Come on Cap! You loved it, the blasts looked like really cool fireworks and you know it,” Tony had noticed the way Steve looked at him, the anger not disguising the fear in Steve’s eyes, so Tony did the only thing he knew how to do: try and diffuse the situation with nonchalance and humour.

“No Tony! We could have lost you,” Steve seethed, his posture slumping, showing Tony how vulnerable he felt. “I could have lost you. I love you and that shit you pulled is not okay. ”

“Language Cap,” Tony looked at the blushing blonde in front of him, stood from his bench with a wince and wrapped Steve in his arms. Tony was stiff as he did so but he soon relaxed when Steve folded into him, his large frame becoming smaller and a warm, comforting wall of muscle wrapped around Tony. He curled his hand in Steve’s hair, feeling his heart race doing so and sighed. “I love you too, Cap, I’ll be more careful next time.”

Tony pulled away and sat back down, even though he liked the hug and the nice heart to heart, he needed his own space. “Steve, we could have lost you too, why do you think I jumped in?”

Steve’s eyes were wide as he shook his head, “I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you.”

Tony pulled Steve down to sit on the bench, clicking his fingers twice in the process so Dum-E brought a small pile that was a pillow and a blanket. He slammed the pillow onto Steve’s lap, squishing it into a comfy place, and placed his head onto the pillow. Steve was stock still, only moving when Tony led Steve’s hand to his chest so it could rest comfortably. Tony patted Steve’s hand, “wake me up when you get uncomfortable or something.”

After that, Steve and Tony were never the same again. They were closer, trusted each other more but they still argued like an old married couple.

The next person to hear his confession was Natasha. It was after the battle with Ultron and Steve had drunk some of the Asgardian mead Thor had left, Steve was curled into Natasha, her nails digging into his scalp as they watched a film, trying to decompress after the damage caused by Ultron. He moaned when she dug into a particular spot on his scalp.

“Ohh, that’s the spot,” he squirmed so he could press into her fingers and sighed happily. “I love you, Nat.”

She paused in shock before she chuckled, continuing the head massage and then kissing the crown of his head, “I love you too, Steve.”

It was plain, simple even and Steve couldn’t help but melt into her arms even more than before. 

Steve was sharing a room with Sam, it was like many nights before that where they had shared a room to save money as they searched for Bucky and in this instance, they were sharing a bed. Steve was on his back with his arms behind his head, his eyes shut so he could try and ease into sleep easier when Sam laid on the bed, resting his head on the swell of Steve’s bicep.

The bed was tiny so their bodies were squished together and neither of them minded. They enjoyed each others company, it was completely platonic and Steve felt so comfortable with Sam that it felt like they had known each since they were children. Steve appreciated how truthful Sam was and how Sam could easily bring up a joke if things were getting too much for Steve.

Steve ended up turning to Sam in the bed, tucking his arm into himself. Sam rolled his eyes at Steve’s shyness and placed his arm around Steve’s waist, “Steve, I love you man but how many times do I have to tell you that it is okay to put your arm around me? You are a giant teddybear, I signed up for this.”

“I love you too.” Steve planted his arm around Sams’s strong torso, a genuine smile on his face. The two fell into a deep sleep and Sam made sure to hold Steve tighter when he called out for Bucky, begging him to come back.

Steve never expected to tell the man he thought had died from falling off of a train that he loved him. Steve had said it to him when he was alive, back before the serum as well as after he had the procedure and rescued him in Azzano. 

At first, the ‘I love you’s’ were platonic, something that two best friends would say but slowly, over time, the words held more weight. Steve would look at Bucky under his lashes, his tongue feeling heavy as he told him those three words, almost daring Bucky to say anything else. So much heat was held in the pair's eyes and one day when the words felt like they were going to drown Steve when he was ready for Bucky to tease him, Bucky had lunged to catch Steve’s lips with his own. From that day, Steve knew that Bucky would always be the love of his life, no matter what.

He was correct. While Bucky focused on recovery and building a friendly relationship with 

Tony (it was getting there, Tony was more understanding when the anger and grief had settled) so Steve didn’t bring up anything about their past unless Bucky mentioned it. It crushed his heart and sometimes his chest tightened so much that he couldn’t breathe but he would rather feel that and be lonely than burden his best friend.

There were days though when Steve wanted to throw his morals away, march up to Bucky, hold him tight and tell him he loved him but instead, on those days, Steve stayed to himself, not risking letting his feelings slip. The Avengers noticed how closed off Steve had become, his usual comments of saying ‘I love you’ to his friends had halted, just so he didn’t blurt them out to Bucky. It would be the Avengers that would tell him they loved him, most of them smiling sadly when his eyes would flit to Bucky before he would walk away.

Tony contacted a company who were known for their quality craftsmanship of teddy bears to get a one of a kind bear made for Steve. He had walked into Steve’s room after a brisk knock to find him curled up on the bed half asleep so he sat next to him and patted his arm.

“Hey buddy, I got you this,” he pushed the bear into Steve’s tired arms. “I know that right now all you want to do is hug Bucky and tell him things that you can’t right now so have Bucky Bear, tell him all of your secrets and you hug him to your heart's content.”

Tony was at the door when he heard Steve croak out ‘I love you’ and he wasn’t sure if it was to himself or the brown bear with a red nose, blue jacket and black mask. He was convinced that it was to Bucky Bear and it was the heartbreak he felt that reminded him with a jolt, that he, Tony Stark, did have a heart.

Bucky had observed from afar, he had seen his friend silently shut down as time went by and he had noticed how people gave him sad looks so he took out his notebook, the one that was for memories that resurfaced, and began writing what he noticed.

Eventually, Bucky tracked his friend down to confront him. Steve was in his bedroom putting away clothes and he didn’t even bother knocking on the door because he knew Steve would shut down even more and hide. Steve’s shocked face was a picture but he didn’t want to let himself get distracted because something was wrong with Steve Rogers and Bucky could not have that.

“What is going on Steve?” Steve had turned his back to him to continue hanging his clothes in his closet, it was also so Bucky couldn’t see the heartbreak written on his face. Although Steve was turned away and he wasn’t able to read his face, he could read his body language. His posture was too good, making him taller than usual, and he could see the tension under Steve’s tight shirt where the muscles were tense. It was as if Steve was ready for a fight and it made Bucky’s stomach tighten.

He thought back to his book and what he had written in it.

  * __He isn’t as clingy as he used to be__
  * _He almost runs from a room if anyone is affectionate with him_
  * _He spent more time by himself than with anybody else_
  * _He doesn’t always eat a full meal_
  * _He twitches like he wants to say something, then he shuts down_

“Steve, are you depressed?” A frown graced Bucky’s face when Steve finished putting the clothes away and closed the closet door. He heard Steve gulp.

“Of course not, Buck.” Steve didn’t move from where he was so Bucky walked up to him, his hand going to Steve’s shoulder. He could feel Steve shudder, “don’t Buck, please don’t.”

He yanked his hand away, he heard the emotion Steve was trying so hard to hide but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Bucky made it so he switched hands and placed one on his waist, there was barely any pressure but he knew Steve could feel it. Bucky wondered if it was the metal hand that made Steve shudder. 

“Talk to me, Stevie.” Bucky felt Steve grasp his hand and he was pulled flush to Steve’s back, Steve’s shoulders slumping and his head gently thumping onto the hardwood of the closet door. “Stevie?” 

Bucky wrapped his metal arm around Steve’s waist, stroking at Steve’s hand that was still entwined with his, not caring if Steve detested the metal as it was a part of Bucky whether he liked it or not.

“I have missed you so much.” It was a whisper and Bucky could only hear it due to the proximity between them.

“Then why have you avoided me?” He struggled to fight the hurt from leaking into his voice.

“I can’t,” Steve shook his head, closing his eyes in pain. “It’s selfish, forget I said anything.”

“For once in your life, be selfish.”

Steve struggled, he did, but there were so many emotions and he was so tired of bottling everything up, of trying to not cause any arguments (unless it was with Tony, at this point the arguments became therapeutic). He took a few deep breaths, his chest and throat burning as he fought back the sobs. He could fight those but he couldn’t fight the selfish desire of telling Bucky he loved him.

“I love you, Buck,” there was a small sob he couldn’t fight and it slipped out. “So much.”

Bucky curled up into Steve’s back, inhaling the deep scent of him. Bucky felt at home with Steve in his arms and he had wanted to be this position for so long it was unreal but he wanted Steve to be the one to initiate boundaries.

“So I didn’t imagine all the times we told each other that we loved them? It wasn’t just a fantasy I had?” Steve let go of his hand and spun in his arms to face him, he brought his hand up to stroke Bucky’s jaw as he softly shook his head. 

Bucky mirrored Steve before kissing him. Despite how much Steve wanted to just jump on Bucky and ravage him, he held back letting the kiss be gentle. The kiss was one of two long lost lovers finally finding their way back home, it was full of passion and longing. Steve, overwhelmed with everything, let a few tears slip down his face and pulled away to take Bucky in. He took in his plump, freshly kissed lips, his already wide eyes with pupils that were dilated and his hair that was mused from Steve running his hands through the silky strands.

“You don’t know how long I have wanted to do that Steve.”

“We are idiots because I have wanted to do that for a while as well.” Bucky pressed into Steve’s forehead with his own and let Steve pull his legs up, a little squawk of surprise leaving him. Steve’s back slid down the wall, bringing Bucky down with him so he sat on his lap.

“Idiots in love,” Steve smirked when Bucky let out a snort at how he sappy he was beeing before pulling him into a kiss. 


End file.
